D.C. Current

Handicap the Race to the Cliff

Here are five things to watch for when following the negotiations in Washington.

Until my Belfast-born barber explained the critical role of midfield play in soccer, the game was as indecipherable to me as hieroglyphics were to archeologists before Pierre François Bouchard discovered the Rosetta Stone in 1799. To sensible investors, negotiations in Washington to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff are no doubt equally confusing. So let me explain some of the nuances of the great game now under way.

First, the only Democrat involved in the negotiations with the GOP congressional leadership who matters is...